The unbearable lights of Target Field

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Since it opened in 2010, Target Field has played to rave reviews, lauded for its atmosphere, its amenities and even its food. ESPN The Magazine ranked it as the No. 1 stadium in North America (Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul was third). And, oh yeah, it’s LEED Silver certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Yet all along there was one group of Minneapolis residents much less enamored of the $550 million ballpark. They live in the Falls and Pinnacle condominium complex at the foot of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Northeast Minneapolis. By day, many can see the ballpark from their windows and balconies. By night, they can see the lights.

Boy, can they see the lights.

The lights at issue are not those that help fans see the players and the players see the ball, but rather a separate set that helps the cleaning crews see all the garbage those fans leave behind. Called housekeeping lights, they shine onto the seating areas for hours after each game or event. They also shine directly into the homes of people who live in the 19-story-Falls and 27-story Pinnacle buildings.

“We can read by those lights at night,” said Dan Mather, the president of the Falls and Pinnacle homeowners association.

Certainly this falls into the category of #firstworldproblems. These are condos, after all, with lovely views of the Mississippi River and downtown Minneapolis. But the glare has been so severe that residents have had to forgo using their balconies and close their curtains on the west side of the buildings on game nights, and the issue has come up enough that the Twins have posted an explanation on the team’s website. (The problem might have been even more widespread had the huge scoreboard and then the parking ramp beyond center field not shielded residences further downriver.)

For years, Mather has been pushing the Twins and the Minnesota Ballpark Authority, the public entity that technically owns Target Field, to do something about the problem. He asked that the team either adjust the lights or adjust the cleaning schedule, but the team insists it must start right after the game to fit in a cleaning schedule that lasts more than eight hours and covers one million square feet of stadium.

And if you think this is all somebody else’s concern, well, you’re part of the problem too — at least if you attend Twin games or one of the recent concerts at Target Field. It takes two hours just to pick up all the garbage left behind by fans, said Twins spokesman Kevin Smith. Then, the entire seating area is pressure washed. All told, 150 workers spend all night and into the morning cleaning up after fans. “If we could just get rid of sunflower seeds it would help a lot,” jokes Smith.

While there had been some work done to change the angle of various bulbs, Mather said he has been working with the team and stadium authority and some improvements have been made to the lighting and cleaning schedule.

Then came the Major League Baseball All Star Game. In order to paint the extra logos on the grass between the dugouts and the field, crews not only turned on the housekeeping lights behind the plate and along third base, they also employed a rarely used bank of lights on the first base side. That brought new complaints from the condo owners, and then a call from Minneapolis City Councilmember Jacob Frey, whose Ward 3 includes the neighborhood.

Frey said the team and authority have been cooperative, but the new round of complaints also helped spur some action. “One of our goals is to be a good neighbor,” said Dan Kenney, the executive director of the ballpark authority. The first base lights will not be used anymore, he said. In addition, he asked a photographer to visit Mather after a recent home game and take pictures with a telephoto lens to try to identify the offending bulbs.

Six to eight individual bulbs were re-aimed last week to avoid shining directly at the buildings. And while the full test won’t occur until the next Twins game, Mather said he noticed a big difference after the recent Paul McCartney concert at Target Field.

“I definitely noticed a lot of them that were re-aimed,” Mather said Monday. “It’s not nearly as bad as it was.”

Four years and many phone calls and meetings later, Mather’s persistence might have finally paid off. “I believe in the erosion theory,” he said. “You don’t blast the mountain, you just wear it down.”

Comments (5)

There’s nothing easier to direct than light. Any light from Target Field that’s going UP into people’s windows is misdirected. Maybe the field’s electricians should go look at that marvelous new invention, the Lamp Shade, and see how easy it is to have the light go where you want it and stop at the edge of that.

Egad — they are horrible. We live in another, lower building but also facing the field from that same angle. The lights are on for 12 – 15 hours at a time; way into the heat of the next day. I could live with 4 hours or so but these unbelievably bright lights are really hard to take. They might be worse for us now that you say they have been adjusted away from the taller buildings. What can be done? We’re talking about a restful sleep here. Can’t they fix this somehow??

Yikes! I’d never heard before that any of our Falls & Pinnacle neighbors had any problems with lights at Target Field. No other building has a better view of the downtown skyline than does the Falls & Pinnacle. And since we’re a mile away from the ballpark (as the crow flies), I wouldn’t have guessed the ballpark’s lights would cause any problems over here.

However, I have worried about how much energy must be consumed/wasted at Target Field at times. Do the lights really need to be that bright for cleaning staff to do its work? If the lights can be annoying from a mile away, they must be pretty unbearable for the staff that works below them.

But it’s good to hear that Mr. Mather has found the team and the ballpark authority responsive to his concerns.

Don’t like to think the lifestyle we enjoy at the Falls and Pinnacle is reflected in this downbeat article. We love our downtown views; we love our city lights; we love our Twins and the excitement they provide. Any resident could go on about the river, and the walkability of the neighborhood.